The Nation

The Reagan Administration, seeking to avoid mandatory school busing, has approved another in a series of "magnet-school" desegregation programs, the Justice Department said. The department said the magnet-school system approach would be permitted in lieu of mandatory cross-town busing in the Phoenix Union High School District under a proposed consent decree filed by the department and school officials. The magnet-school system allows students to voluntarily transfer to schools that would offer special academic programs.